STUDENTS from the University of Glasgow staged a sit-in at management offices on Remembrance Day, as part of an ongoing campaign demanding the institution’s leadership stop investing in arms companies.
The action took place on Monday morning, with students wearing white poppies and painting their hands red.
The action was organised by student societies Glasgow Against Arms and Fossil Fuels (GAAFF) and Justice for Palestine Society (JPS), co-ordinating similar Remembrance Day pro-Palestine actions across UK universities; including Queens Margaret University London, the University of Nottingham, University of Lincoln and University of Cardiff.
Speeches from protesters in Glasgow urged other students "to oppose the complicity" and call out the "hypocrisy of the university remembering the fallen whilst investing in arms companies".
They argue the university’s £5.5 million of investments in arms companies, such as BAE Systems and QinetiQ, make it complicit in war crimes, including the “genocide” in Palestine.
Around 30 students sat outside the university's main offices, chanted in Arabic and held up photos of those killed by Israel, including Glasgow University alumna Dima Alhaj.
Ex-student Alhaj, 29, and her six-month old baby were killed in Gaza in December alongside her husband and two brothers.
The management offices were eventually evacuated by university security, and upon leaving students were escorted across campus.
The protesters also highlighted frustration within the ongoing student and staff campaign.
After a two-week occupation and numerous protests and negotiations last year, the university continues to ignore calls from students and staff for divestment.
Elliot Murphy, student and organiser with both GAAFF and GUJPS said: “To respect all those innocent, who lost their lives fighting with peace as their ambition; and the best way to truly honour armistice, is to call for an end to genocide in Palestine and reflect on the complicity of our own country in the massacres we have been bearing witness to for the last 13 months.”
Activist Olivia Smith said: “By taking action today, we are choosing to reclaim the day, to remember over 186,000 innocent Palestinians that have been killed, and to oppose this complicity”.
The University of Glasgow has been contacted for comment.
